A MAINTENANCE worker of Qingdao Power Supply Company has founded his own creation studio. His job is to solve technical problems with the relays.

    Xia Xiaobin, 51, is the first worker in Qingdao to win the titles of “Senior Technician,” “Chief Technician of Shandong Province,” and “Excellent Professional of State Grid” with only a middle-school education.

    He has been a maintenance worker for 32 years and is paid the same as a chief engineer of his company by virtue of his great achievements in maintenance techniques.

    “Xia’s evergreen curiosity made him learn novel things and inspired his creations during his work,” said Wang Jinxing, general manager of Qingdao Power Supply Company.

    “Xia has been a leading technician despite the relay technology experiencing a number of upgrades,” said Wang Linfeng, an apprentice of Xia.

    In 2009, He invented a switchboard that helped to install a temperature monitor at a transformer station. The invention reduced the construction time of the transformer station.

    He invented many electric circuits and equipment of state-of-the-art level.

    Xia is also famous for his remote maintenance techniques.

    There was a power supply breakdown at Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center during an important competition in 2007 and nobody had any idea how to fix it.

    Xia solved the problem by telephone with information provided by an on-site technician.

    He had taught himself mathematics, wireless telecommunications, mechanical drawing, computer drawing and electronics over the past 30 years.

    Xia then created a computer system to record about 10,000 technical drawings of substations in Qingdao in one year.

    Xia is also good at calligraphy and computer games.

    He has studied the construction of almost every electric appliance such as the washing machine, microwave stove, computer, scanner, and DVD player to learn more about machinery.

    (Tina Chen, Fu Xuejun)